More than 70 athletes will compete in the first Bermuda Invitational Permit Meet on Friday evening at the National Stadium.

The athletes will begin arriving today, eight this afternoon and six more on the evening flights from Miami and New York.

The Bermuda National Athletics Association is excited about the calibre of the athletes, including Jason Richardson, the world champion and Olympic silver medal winner in the 110 metres hurdles.

“This is working out better than we could have ever imagined,” Donna Raynor, the BNAA president, said.

“We are still receiving requests from athletes wanting to enter this event.

“I think the buzz came about at the Chris Brown Invitational in Bahamas this past weekend as we have not had any difficulty filling the lanes to the capacity that we need.

“We are very excited with the list we have ended up with. Not only do we have athletes but we also have a few managers, an announcer [Keith Joseph] and a media person from Jamaica.”

Joseph was the commentator during the Carifta Games held in Bermuda in 2012. The men’s long jump will have nine competitors, including local trio Tyrone Smith, Ethan Philip and Bruce DeGrilla while there are 11 in the men’s 800 metres, including Bermudian Aaron Evans.

“We have some top long jumpers who Tyrone has been competing against over several years and they all have personal bests over eight metres, Damar Forbes, Michael Hartfield,” Raynor said.

“The 800 metres is a tough field with 11 vying for the top position and will push Aaron.

“We also have a few Olympic champions, world champions, world junior champions, Pan Am Games medal winner, Commonwealth Games finalist.

“We have top sprinter Mike Rodgers from the United States, who was part of the US 4x100 winning-relay team with a personal best of 9.80 seconds and in the same event Michael Fraters from Jamaica who was part of the 4x100 Jamaica team with a personal best of 9.86.”

Raynor added: “In the 400 metres we have Javon Francis from Jamaica, a silver medallist in the World Championships and Calvin Smith, a world indoor champion and part of the US record-winning 4x400 relay team.

“As you can see we are now having the 110 metres hurdles with seven athletes taking to the line with world champion and Olympic silver medallist Jason Richardson on the starting line. Bermuda has never seen this event at this level.”

The BNAA has worked tirelessly over the last few weeks to bring top quality athletes to the event and Raynor promises an exciting event.

“All in all, my committee has worked extremely hard to pull off this field of athletes and we just need the Bermuda public to come out and support this event,” Raynor said. “This will be a preview of what an Olympic, Commonwealth Games or Pan Am Games looks like in person.”